Vremya and Illisania's Fight with Khofar
This page includes the tale of Vremya and Illisania's fight with the Demon Lord, Khofar. Vremya and Illisania After Vremya was brought into being at the First Bonfire, he was immediately internally divided into two aspects; growth (Рост) and decay (Старинйе). These two aspects vied for power as the God of Time sat before the fire, his insides churning and eating away at each other, as Odin and his family looked on in horror at the pain their creation had caused the deity. Then, from out of the darkness, there emerged, somewhat halfheartedly, a woman of simple beauty, with hair streaked with alternating stripes of pure white and pure black, who seemed very reluctant to get much nearer to the fire. She remained halfway in the shadows, a look of confusion etched onto her face, until a cry of pain finally escaped Vremya, The woman immediately rushed over to him to comfort him, and as she embraced him Vremya felt all the chaos within him be abated. It was not as if his duality had subsided, more so it had been settled, as if the parties involved had been convinced to leave their feud unresolved for now. Vremya turned to the woman who had, as far as he could tell, halted his suffering, and pleaded that she tell him her name. The quiet reply was that she was Illisania. Seizing her hands in his, Vremya thanked Illisania for her help a thousand times over, and asked that she remain by his side for as long as she could. Somewhat taken aback, she agreed to help keep the god's imbalances in check, and from that day on she was the goddess of Balance, and, true to her word did not leave Vremya's side. Over the countless eons involved in shaping the world, her companionship with him grew into a friendship, and while (with the obvious goal of not offending the gods in mind) there is still some quiet debate over the specifics of the relations of the two deities, all at least agree that there were never two companions as faithful and compatible with one another as Time and Balance. Khofar Emerges As the millenia passed and the world tree grew, there emerged from the roiling blackness of the Abyss creatures more foul than anything dreamt up by god or man by that time. Most of these demons were petty things, eventually captured and imprisoned or enslaved by Hel within her domain, or banished from existence by Zo'ker, if they were the particularly unruly type. Some, understandably, slipped through the cracks. One such demon that slipped past both Hel and Zo'ker's stewardship was Khofar, the Demon Lord. A hulking, shadowy monster of a beast, Khofar held within him the rage of all his banished and enslaved brethren, and had taken it upon himself to topple the world tree and rule the ashes himself, believing himself above even the gods. He made his way up the world tree, aiming for Asgard, killing and slaughtering as much as he could along the way, leaving a great scar in Yggdrasil's flesh that remains there in some capacity to this day, tainted by the demonic energy which wrought it. The gods were gearing themselves up for battle with the legendary beast, when Khofar happened upon the little plane belonging to Vremya and Illisania. The God of Time and Goddess of Balance were so necessary to the operation of the universe that most gods simply left them alone for their own benefit, but by this same act, many had forgotten where exactly the Plane of Giving and Taking resided. Vremya and Illisania, however, knew full well of the impending threat and, having received no word from any other deities of the plan to stop Khofar at the gates of Asgard, prepared to do battle with the beast. The Battle with Khofar As Khofar careened through the gates of the simple homestead in which Vremya and Illisania resided, the two deities began dueling with the beast, using the most ethereal magics, and secret techniques in an effort to destroy the dark intruder. Vremya made time around Khofar move like molasses, and made his own feet lighter than air, while Illisania prepared ward upon magical ward, waiting for the demon's first strike to return fire upon him, and hopefully destroy the creature with the force of its own blow. Khofar just laughed, and dispelled all the magic surrounding him in an instant. The demon was made from a force older than both Vremya and Illisania; he was made of the emptiness that filled the world timeless eons before the First Bonfire, timeless eons before time itself was brought into being. Khofar was also the culmination of rage and hatred of the gods, brought to bear in one, horrendous creature. Still, the gods themselves possessing tremendous power in their own right, the battle did not end there. For five days and nights the gods attempted to subdue Khofar or destroy him, gradually being backed up to their own little home, as the other gods searched and searched Yggdrasil for where Khofar had gone. It was only when the two gods were on the front steps of their house that Khofar finally made a decisive move. He had realized, quickly, that Illisania was the goddess of Balance, of the duality in all things, of pure good and pure evil. With a wicked grin, Khofar feinted a lethal blow at Vremya, which Illisania moved in to block, and then, with his other hand, stabbed deeply at Illisania's heart, forcing out the force of pure good, a form of Illisania that glowed with a soft silver light, and who had hair of pure white. With a triumphant laugh that Vremya knew could only mean one thing, Khofar took the form of Illisania between his fingers and swallowed her whole. The body of Illisania's left behind grew limp in Vremya's arms, and the strands of white in her hair disappeared entirely, and the blood poured out of the hole in her chest where her heart was, just as the other gods finally found the Plane of Giving and Taking. Odin himself was just in time to see the evil demon swallow the pure good from within Illisania, and to hear Vremya cry out with a pain at losing his lifelong companion matched only by Saxo's when he lost Osiris. The Battle's Aftermath Khofar laughed an evil, disgusting laugh as Vremya shook the limp body of the woman who had been his companion since the beginning of his life, begging her, pleading with all manner of deity that she remain alive. As Odin placed his hand on Vremya's shoulder, the timeless god knew it was doomed, and turned towards the demon he had been fighting, ready to avenge Illisania if it meant his own death, only to see a curious look of pain on the demon lord's face. As Vremya's own expression changed from rage to confusion, Khofar doubled up in pain, his gut and throat beginning to glow with the same silver light that had surrounded the form of Illisania that had been ripped from her body. Suddenly, as if someone had very suddenly hit a switch, Khofar vaporized, literally sublimated into black and silver particles, before Vremya's very eyes. Although it would take several years of research for the gods to understand, when Khofar consumed the very essence of pure good contained within Illisania, his body, just as pretty much every existing creature besides Illisania herself would have done, could not handle anywhere near the raw positive energy radiating from the body he swallowed. And so both he and Illisania's pure good half vaporized, and were scattered to the winds of creation, and neither has ever been seen since. Vremya, after witnessing this incredible godly spectacle, turned his attention back to the body lying on the ground behind him, which had begun to stir as Khofar's essence dissipated. As she opened her eyes, the woman lying on the ground stared at Vremya with jet black irises, and a sinister, gaunt expression that Vremya had never seen on Illisania's face before. As this woman, whoever she was, began to stand up and get her bearings, the old churning in Vremya's gut, which hadn't troubled him since the start of creation, flared up again, only this time, it was much worse. Without Illisania, who embodied balance, to calm the opposing forces of Growth and Decay, and with millennia of stewing and staring daggers at each other within Vremya's soul, the two forces came out swinging, determined to, at last, settle their old feud, with no one able to stop them. Vremya doubled up, coughing and screaming in agony, as the woman inhabiting Illisania's body looked on with an odd combination of sorrow and removal evident in every feature. She did not move to comfort him, even as he looked up at her with pleading eyes. Every nerve in his body was on fire, existence was agony, nothing mattered except that he wished to die, but being a god, death was the one thing he could not grant himself. As the pain within him peaked and became the greatest agony of agonies, Vremya ran from his house and threw himself off of a cliff into the sea below. At the bottom of his fall was a razor-sharp rock, positioned almost perfectly. Being the god of time, Vremya had eternity to think on his decision as he fell. He decided that the only way to end his suffering was to split himself completely in two, and he would do so on this rock. So as he fell, Vremya promised himself that he would divide his body into two halves for these two forces within him; the right half would go to growth, and the left half to decay. He fell upon the rock just so to split his body in twain perfectly, and as each half rolled away, the missing half of each person's body formed to fill in the gaps. The only thing missing from each body was a second eye. As Vremya, or the two who were once Vremya, ascended the cliff again, into the waiting arms of the other gods, the two brothers adopted their new names. We call them Rost and Stariniye, meaning Growth and Decay, but, in all formal settings, the two gods will always be Rost Vremya and Stariniye Vremya, for it was from Vremya that these two were born. The living remains of Illisania adopted the name Malifex, and rules over pure Evil. Malifex and the Vremyans do not speak to one another.